Editor’s Note: This story contains discussions of rape or sexual assault that may be disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can find help and discreet resources on the National Sexual Assault Hotline website or by calling 1-800-656-4673.
(NewsNation) — The mother of a Maryland woman who was raped and murdered by a fugitive from El Salvador in 2023 is bracing for the killer’s sentencing hearing Monday, which she predicts will be “emotional.”
Patty Morin told “NewsNation Prime” she has spent the last two weeks writing a victim-impact statement to share publicly as Victor Martinez-Hernandez appears before a judge. A jury in April convicted Martinez-Hernandez in the brutal killing of Rachel Morin, 37, a single mother of five who was attacked while jogging on a path in suburban Baltimore.
“I am, at the moment, doing well. I think I’m all cried out,” Morin said Sunday evening.
While the process of writing her statement has involved reliving the crime, there has been an upside too, Morin said.
“You also are reliving all the memories that you’ve shared with Rachel — like when I found out I became pregnant, when I was carrying her, the dreams and hopes I had for her … what she was like as a child,” Morin said. “All those things come rushing into your mind.”
Her goal, she said, was to “convey it so the judge sees how precious and valuable Rachel was.”
In addition to her own statement, Morin said some of Rachel’s children, including her teenage daughter, who was the last person to speak with her, will make statements at the sentencing hearing.
“That’s going to be a very emotional time tomorrow,” Morin said.
Martinez-Hernandez entered the U.S. illegally multiple times from his native El Salvador, where he was accused of killing a woman in December 2022. He was expelled each time he crossed the border in early 2023, authorities said.
Martinez-Hernandez was also linked to the assault of a woman and her 9-year-old daughter in Los Angeles.